OPEC Agrees To Ease Crude Oil Production Cuts From May

The Joint Ministerial Meeting Committee of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC membees have agreed to ease crude oil production cuts by May.

At the end of a meeting held on Tuesday and co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and Russia, members backed the coalition’s earlier decision to gradually taper crude production cuts from May onwards, delegates told S&P Global Platts.

They also noted that the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries was slowing down economic and oil demand recovery.

During the deliberations at the meeting, delegates noted the continuing recovery in the global economy, supported by unprecedented levels of monetary and fiscal support.

During an OPEC+ meeting on April 1, the group planned to raise its collective output by 350,000 b/d in May, another 350,000 b/d in June, and 441,000 b/d in July.

Saudi Arabia, which is currently in the middle of an additional 1 million b/d cut, is expected to ease the cut by 250,000 b/d in May, 350,000 b/d in June and 400,000 b/d in July.

READ ALSO: Buhari Orders DPR To Return Oil Blocs To NNPC, Addax

According to them, ongoing positive contributions of the Declaration of Cooperation is supporting a rebalancing of the global oil market.

OPEC said, “The ministerial meeting emphasised, however, that COVID-19 cases are rising in a number of countries, despite the ongoing vaccination campaigns, and that the resurgence could hamper the economic and oil demand recovery.”

The stakeholders reviewed the monthly report prepared by the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, including the crude oil production data for March 2021.

Participants welcomed the positive performance of the participating countries, as they noted that overall conformity to the production adjustments was 115 per cent in March 2021, reinforcing the trend of high conformity by the nations.

The meeting expressed its appreciation to the participating countries that performed beyond expectation in March 2021, with total over-conformed volumes of 1.23 million barrels per day.

It, however, noted that some participating countries had yet to achieve the minimum expectation of 100 per cent conformity and to compensate for overproduced volumes.